Eight House Dems Back Impeachment Probe

Eight House Democrats have announced their support for legislation that would establish an impeachment inquiry into whether President Bush committed high crimes and misdemeanors against the U.S. in connection with the Iraq war.

HR 635 calls for "Creating a select committee to investigate the administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture [and] retaliating against critics."

The legislation says that the select committee should "make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment."

The bill, first proposed by Rep. John Conyers last month, claims that there is "at least a prima facie case that these actions" violated federal law.

According to the Atlanta Progressive News, HR635 has attracted the support of seven co-sponsors so far, including Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA), Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).